FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Chicago Seminar DO October 16th and 17th 2010
Old May 2, 2010, 7:01 pm
  #3  
ingy
formerly known as Frugal Travel Guy
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Greenville, SC
Programs: UA Gold, HH Gold, SPG Gold, Marriott Silver, Hyatt Platinum
Posts: 1,925
Meeting Planner Posts

Seminar Registration is Now Closed

but registered attendees may still reserve a hotel at the overflow hotel by clicking on the hotel registration link provided below.


UpgradedFirst Quote

=============================We have made a special arrangement with Holiday Inn Elk Grove and SpringHill Suites Chicago O'Hare close to ORD airport. Both hotels are clean and highly rated. The primary hotel is Holiday Inn and all seminars, functions and meals will take place there. We are using SpringHill Suites Chicago O'Hare as the attendee overflow hotel. We are in a total buyout position with the Holiday Inn. Everyone in Holiday Inn will be a fellow Flyertalker during the event. Holiday Inn has agreed to provide high quality meeting rooms, two 10' projector screens, microphone systems, meal space, Internet for everyone and shuttle service. The hotel can only hope to recover some of their expense via attendee room bookings. I do not want Flyertalk get a bad reputation for abusing hotel's good will. I ask everyone please do everything you can to stay at the selected hotels. I CAN NOT STRESS this enough. It's also important you book right away to assist us in attending count and ensure you will have a room at our hotels.

Primary Hotel: Holiday Inn Chicago Elk Grove Village Hotel
1000 Busse Road • Elk Grove Village, Illinois 60007
Phone: (847) 437-6010 • Fax: (847) 806-9369
Check-in 3:00 PM
Check-out 12:00 PM
http://www.hielkgrove.com/
http://www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/...s=1&children=0

Overflow Hotel: SpringHill Suites Chicago O'Hare
8101 West Higgins Road
Chicago, Illinois 60631 USA
Phone: 1-773-867-0000
Check-in 3:00 PM
Check-out 12:00 PM
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/trave...chicago-ohare/

The rate is $89 plus taxes, it comes out approximately $99.68 including
taxes. Everyone MUST book using FT Chicago DO booking link, regardless which hotel you will end up staying.

http://ichotelsgroup.com/redirect?pa..._PMID=99801505

Our rate is good from October 12th to October 20th with the hotel. You may book from 1 night only or all the way to a week long vacation for you. The room rate is same all the way through.

We knew IHG had some issues with their website first few days of registration, however, they have assured me everything is working well now. If for some reason the link does not work, please go directly to hotel's website:
http://www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/...eg/hoteldetail
Once there, all you have to do is enter the Code: FTE in the group code area and enter their requested stay dates and the rate will show for the group. You may also phone in quoting reference "FT Chicago DO and the group code: FTE".

You may choose a specific room type with Holiday Inn. With SpringHill Suite, we are simply taking a standard room reservation. Please mark down your room preference such as king bed or 2 double bed in the special request area. We will do our best to match you with the desired room. Please do not book your room using points at either Holiday Inn or SpringHill Suite; all award reservations with our group will be canceled. You also must book the room using the link above, do not book the hotel room directly with the hotel. This is due to this is a packaged program, your room rate includes meeting spaces, meals, coffee breaks, reception...etc. Please do not book more rooms than you need and cancel at last minute.

Please do book your room right away if you wish to attend. Rooms will go fast and number will help us to estimate number of attendees and amount of food required. All the booking must be done prior to August 15, 2010. We are limiting the entire seminar to 550 people due to meeting space constrain(300/250 theater style sitting in meeting room) and to ensure meal service quality. We will not run waiting list. WE HAVE ALL THE GUEST ROOMS WE NEED. THERE SHOULD BE NO REASON why you wouldn't stay at Holiday Inn or SpringHill Suite. We even have a 3rd hotel lined up to provide additional rooms if needed. In any case, book via our booking link above. Early bookers will enjoy priority selection toward staying at Holiday Inn. However, room type, smoking preference and stay duration also will impact on room allotment. If you are staying longer than seminar dates, it's a good bet you are going to stay at Holiday Inn. Some of you will end up sleeping in SpringHill rooms rather than Holiday Inn rooms, however, your room charge will always come from Holiday Inn. All guests must present a credit card upon check-in to respective hotel for incidentals. There will be no difference between people staying at Holiday Inn and people staying at SpringHill Suites for the room rate, seminars, meal services and reception. Think as SpringHill Suites is "code sharing" with Holiday Inn. Shuttles will run between 2 hotels as needed. As we get closer to the DO date, you will get a phone call from the hotel to inform you which hotel you will be staying and which shuttle to take.

Included in the room:
- Airport shuttle from/to ORD, from/to overflow hotel, transit point or anywhere within 5 miles of hotel radius
- Parking if you are driving
- Wireless in room and meeting space Internet
- Breakfast, lunch and two coffee breaks on Saturday and Sunday
- 2 hours Saturday night soft drinks / beer / wine / liquors open bar reception
- For attendees staying pre or post the event, Holiday Inn will not have meal buffet setup since the group is not in. However, the hotel will give you $10 breakfast voucher and $15 lunch voucher to use toward in the restaurant onsite each day

Points / Stay credit toward status qualification:
Normally when you book a group rate, IHG does not reward points, especially in our case of heavily discounted room rates. However, I know we are all points freaks. So I have negotiated with Holiday Inn to provide us typical points plus some bonus points by rounding up to nearest thousands of points. For example, by staying 2 nights with our rate, your typical Priority Club points earning would be 1780, Holiday Inn will reward 2000 points to our attendees. Due to this is a special arrangement, please request point vouchers from the front desk upon check out. For people staying at SpringHill Suite, most likely you will receive typical Marriott Rewards points and stay credit instead of Priority Club points.

Again, our DO package rate is $89 plus taxes, it comes out approximately $99.68 including taxes. If you are attending to this FT Chicago Seminar DO, PLEASE DO TRY TO MAKE EVERY EFFORT to stay at this hotel and book under our negotiated rate. This hotel has been great helping us out each step of the way with all our requests and providing a lot of things for free. I do not want Flyertalk group to get a bad reputation or try to take hotel's advantage. This rate is HONORED from October 12th to October 20th. This is a cheap hotel rate for anyone who wants to stay longer to see the town. While this is not your 5 star property, this is a highly rated nice & clean property.

Transfer, Shuttle/Parking Instructions:
Hotels are providing shuttle services to ORD airport. No shuttle for MDW airport. You do not need to book the shuttle ahead of the time. However, we do ask all attendees provides their flight information so we can schedule larger bus during the peak time. The shuttle runs from 0600 hours to 2200 hours. From Domestic baggage area, follow signs to "bus/shuttle center", door #2. From International Terminal, shuttle picks up at door 5E. Service is every hour on the hour or you may call the hotel upon landing.

For Holiday Inn guests: Normally the hotel has two 14 passenger shuttle buses and two 11 passenger vans. The transportation hotline # is 1-888-SEE-ELKGROVE. There is a courtesy phone in the airport as well. Make sure the shuttle you board is marked "HOLIDAY INN ELK GROVE".

For SpringHill Suite guests: SpringHill has three 11 passenger vans ready to pick you up as well. There is a courtesy phone in the airport. Please make sure you board "SpringHill Suites Chicago O'Hare" vans.

In total, we have approximately 88 people moving capability at one time. Outside of shuttle hours, you may rent a car or take a taxi. Taxi to hotel from ORD is around $16 US and from MDW is around $50. Parking is free at both hotel.

If you are in need of a rental car, please contact me directly for the booking instruction. PJA Groups (our meeting and incentive management firm) is sponsoring 20 cars for the event. Please note, the driver will take all liability from operating a motor vehicle and will be responsible for fuel, taxes and fees amount to approximately $30 for two days.

Meal:
Each hotel room comes with one breakfast and one lunch voucher for each day. For additional guest in a room or local attendees, meal vouchers can be purchased from planner with price of $15 for breakfast & morning coffee break and $20 for lunch & afternoon coffee break. Meal voucher can only be paid with cash only. Voucher will be collected at door of buffet. Hotel will setup a nice buffet specially for us. Sample menu as follow:

Breakfast: Coffee/tea/soft drinks/juice, Scrambled Eggs, Sausage, Hash Browns, Breakfast Breads / Assorted Pastries different each day
Lunch Saturday: Tossed Salad, Assorted Pizzas, Beverage Service(coffee/tea/soft drinks/juice) and Dessert
Lunch Sunday: Cole Slaw, Deli Meats and Cheese, Bread Basket, Beverage Service(coffee/tea/soft drinks/juice) and Dessert
Coffee Break: Beverage service(coffee/tea/soft drinks/juice) and Cookies / Chips

Given the group size, we might go to box lunch to speed up service to everyone. For example, turkey / roast beef / ham sandwich with chips, dessert, fruit and a drink.

There is one restaurant onsite in Holiday Inn- Old Chicago Pasta & Pizza. Elk Grove Village locals and visitors alike gather to enjoy the daily specials, great food and the 110 International beers available in Old Chicago's famous World Beer Tour. It offers Chicago style pizza with made-from-scratch-dough. Thin crust or deep dish, your choice. Or if it’s pasta, a calzone, salad, burger or sandwich you crave, go for it.

There is a Outback steak house in SpringHill Suite. For more information, visit www.outback.com.

I will be in Holiday Inn, please join me personally in breakfast area everyday in the morning and bar in the evening. We shall swap stories.

There is a special 2 hour open bar (soft drink / beer / wine / liquor) networking reception on Saturday night. This is not a mandatory event, it is for if you do not have anything planned that evening. Come down and join me for a drink. This is primarily focused on people staying at host hotel and overflow hotel. I will not allow anyone to drink and drive. Please don't even try. Local attendees, if you want to socialize with the group and enjoy the open bar reception, why not stay at the hotel and make a fun weekend out of it? Don't worry about get home late and get back to the hotel at morning for breakfast.

Travel:
I have taken the liberty to setup a discount code with Continental Airline, a Star Alliance member. Simply book online from www.continental.com, enter discount code ZJ5B260692 into the offer code. You will get 5-15% discount depending where you are departing from in any fare class. The travel date must be between 10/8/2010 and 10/23/2010 and destination must be ORD. For your interest, this discount code also works for 8/1/2010 - 8/13/2010.

If American Airline or OneWorld is more of your style, discount code is 49H0BC. Simply book online from www.aa.com, enter discount code 49H0BC into the promotion code. You will get 5-15% discount depending where you are departing from in any fare class. The travel date must be between 10/8/2010 and 10/23/2010 and destination must be ORD.

I spend 90+ hours on this matter already and I hope you find this arrangement satisfactory. If you have any questions or comments, please email or PM me directly.

Locals/attendees:
- seeking volunteers with a cell phone as greeter at hotel, security, human pointer during the event
- 4 projectors that can project to 10'X10' screen with sufficient brightness. Presentation laser pointers. Wireless microphones.
- long extension cords, power bars

Speakers:
- Please email me your presentations and handouts
- A flip chart will be provided on the stage, however, due to size of the group I don't think people will able to see it well.

Sponsors:
- Please email me your logo for signage display in the lobby

Printers:
- I need to have 10 3'X4' 4 color poster with cardboard backing to be held on easels throughout the hotel

====================

Last edited by ingy; Jun 4, 2010 at 2:53 pm
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